The End of Stress As We Know It

by McEwen, Bruce S.; Lasley, Elizabeth Norton

• ISBN13: 9780309076401
• ISBN10: 0309076404
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-10-01
• Publisher: Natl Academy Pr

Summary

Hamlet spoke of "suffering the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune." These days we simply use the word "stress" to describe that feeling. And if you ask 10 random people if they feel stressed, chances are that at least 9 will reply with a resounding, "Yes!" Indeed, the very way we use the word implies that we are its victims -- as in, "I'm under so much stress" or "I'm completely stressed out." There's now a better way to look at this picture, a way to move from victim to victor.

The first step is to look to the science behind it all because in the science lies a whole new message about stress. Science allows us to understand what the stress response is and why our bodies react the way they do. Like all living creatures, we're mapped to respond instinctually in certain ways, and generally for good reasons. We know, for example, that in times of emergency, we effortlessly shift into a different biological mode. Based on our perception of the crisis, our brains initiate the "stress response" or the "flight-or-fight reaction." Our attention becomes keenly fo

Author Biography

Bruce McEwen is the head of the Harold and Margaret Milliken Hatch Laboratory of Neuroendocrinology at Rockefeller University in New York City.

Table of Contents

Foreword	vii
Acknowledgments	xi
A New Way to Look at Stress	1	(16)
The Stress Response---or How We Cope	17	(22)
Stress and the Emotional Connection	39	(16)
Allostatic Load: When Protection Gives Way to Damage	55	(12)
Stress and the Cardiovascular System	67	(22)
Stress and the Immune System	89	(18)
Stress and the Brain	107	(28)
How Not to Be Stressed Out	135	(19)
Positive Health	154	(19)
Where We Could Go from Here	173	(18)
Appendix: Chemical Messengers of Allostasis, Their Receptors, and Their Protective and Damaging Effects	191	(12)
Notes	203	(22)
Index	225